Miniature wargaming is essentially a visual hobby. The use of miniatures and terrain is instead of counters is intended to increase the visual realism of the game, and are what distinquish miniature wargaming from board and computer games. The following galleries collect pictures to help inform and inspire your efforts at painting and scratch-building for your DBA armies:

Other Eye Candy Highlights

Here is an outstanding Eye Candy shot of Gallic cavalry on the charge. I'm afraid I've lost track of the source of this image, so my apologies for the lack of proper credit.

Say you like the Communal Italians, but are not particularly enamored of rolling out a "standard bearing carrioco" as your warwagon. Well, you can opt instead for a "plaustrella" or scythed cart. Here are some great pictures of the same by Luke Ueda-Sarson, which also feature examples of Mirliton 15mm figures.

This Old Glory samurai by Russell Thompson illustrates the results which can be obtained from the Miracle Dip technique.

One of the nice things about DBA or any historical miniature gaming is that you can represent specific historical units such as Alexander's Silvershields or personalize figures to represent specific historical personages such as Alexander the Great, Hannibal, or Caesar. Fanatici Mats Elzinga of Holland carried this a step further with his "interpretation (at right) of one of my forefathers -Ioannis Heeris Elsenga- at the battle of the Weser in 1234. I used an old Citadel miniature (which I think is now part of Foundry's MED range) and emblazoned his shield with our family coat-of-arms."

I really liked the composition of the element and the shield designs on these Roman legionaries.

One of the challenges when creating an element for DBA is putting it together in a way that is "animated." It requires careful selection of figures and consideration of how best to place them on the element base. If done properly, the result can be quite lifelike, such as this example of a highly-animated Republican Roman element shot at HMGS-South's Hurricon 98 Convention.

Tired of those puny-sized Roman bolt-shooters, Macedonian torsion artillery, or French Ordonannce culverins on your artillery elements? Try a human-powered medieval Trebuchet, this one from the Mongol collection of David Kuijt using a Museum Miniature model with a mixed Chinese and Arab crew.

The Communal Italian DBA list includes a carroccio, or heavily guarded wagon sporting a religious banner(s) and holy relics that was intended to invoke divine blessings on the army's endeavors and boost morale. Here is an outstanding diarama of a Carroccio at the Battle of Montiperti (1260 AD), made with Mirliton 15mm figures. Try squeezing that on a 40mm square DBA base!

A DBA army of 35-50 figures can often look awful sparce on the table-top, which is one of the reasons that some players eventually evolve to DBM and other rule systems that let them create a more visually appealing mass. Another option is to switch scales, using 6mm figures densely packed on 15mm-sized bases. Here is an example of a "Dense" ECW pike element created by Bob Beattie.